When you think of the song “Boyfriend” by Justin Bieber, the first face that comes to mind is of a young popstar trying to break free of a traditional mold. However the true mastermind of the song is a person you would never expect, a 21 year old R&B/Soul artist named Mat Musto, also known as Blackbear.

Blackbear was born on November 27th, 1990, to a teenage mother and drug-addicted father, who would later leave his family. From a young age he was involved in music, getting his hands on any instrument he possibly could. In high school, he would form the band Polaroid with some friends and release an album, EP, and demo. After leaving Polaroid in 2008, he began a solo career under his real name Mat Musto, releasing three EPs over the course of three years: Brightness in 2008, Contrast in 2009, and Exposure in 2010. In 2011, Musto released an EP entitled Year of the Blackbear, and decided that moving forward he would use “blackbear” as his musician name.

As blackbear, he has recorded four studio length albums to date including: Deadroses (2015), Help (2015), Digital Druglord (2017), Cybersex (2017), and has worked on the collaborative albums: Hotel Motel (with Mod Sun) (2016), Mansionz (with Mike Posner) (2017), 24bears (with 24hrs) (2018). He has written, co-written, and worked with many influential artists including: Hoodie Allen, Justin Bieber, G-Eazy, Mike Posner, Machine Gun Kelly, Childish Gambino, Pharrell Williams, and Linkin Park.

Currently his most well known song is “Do Re Mi” featuring Gucci Mane, and it is truly one of his best songs. It is the type of song that you could both relax while listening to it, or play it at a party and have everyone up and dancing. The music video to this song is inspired by the Sound of Music, with children dancing around- some of them dancing much better than I ever will- in matching outfits in a large house. The off brand nature and comedic timing of the video is hilarious, including the ending scene with blackbear acting like a father who is just questioning every life decision he has ever made as his children scream in the car around him.

Personally, my favorite version of this artist is when he does acoustic versions of some of his singles. All of them are located on an EP entitled Dead (Acoustic). In this EP, you can really see the extent of blackbear’s musical abilities. Often times with highly produced hip/hop and R&B, one can lose sight of the artist’s message and voice, but with this EP, blackbear puts everything on the line and lets his songs speak for themselves. It is pretty much my go to EP currently, with “idfc” and “Dirty Laundry” being my favorite songs.

Blackbear is the type of artist that anyone can listen to. Whether you like an insane amount of production and “sick beats”, as the kids say these days, or you like a soulful artist that can unplug, blackbear will have something for you. He is truly a songwriter and storyteller, and through his music we can see a snapshot into his life and reflect on our own experiences in life as well.